System and method for employing social networks for information discovery

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided that enable searches of social networks by acting as a “compass” that assists users in navigating the social network. Individual user participation is not required in response to queries from other users. The systems and methods offer navigational assistance or information as opposed to a traditional search which returns requested information, thus currently acceptable social mechanisms for arbitrating trust can be exploited. As a result, users do not make their personal information publicly searchable, while at the same time, they are protected from potential misrepresentations of facts.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to information networks, andmore particularly to employing social networks for informationdiscovery.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

One of the most effective channels of disseminating and obtaininginformation is through direct, personal relationships referred to associal networks. A social network consists of individuals and theirpersonal relationships to other individuals through which socialinformation and opportunities are exchanged. The direct, personalrelationship implies that two people “know” each other and typicallyhave a certain amount of trust for each other. The value of socialnetworks can be demonstrated for example by the “six degrees ofseparation” phenomenon, which means that the distance between any twoindividuals in terms of direct personal relationships is relativelysmall (e.g.., 6 degrees or less). Social networks are frequentlyemployed by individuals often without conscious thought. For example, aperson may be searching for a job and contact his or her friends todetermine if they are aware of available positions. These friends areable to provide reliable information about positions they themselvesdirectly know about. Additionally, these friends can recommend theirjob-seeking friend for available positions, assuming they consider thejob-seeking friend to be qualified, reliable, hard working and the like.Furthermore, these direct personal relationships can be employed toobtain social information and/or opportunities such as for exampleinformation about possible romantic partners, good movies, restaurants,buying, selling, buing or trading of items and services, recommendationsfor movies, restaurants, romantic partners and the like.

Direct personal relationships are particularly useful in obtaininginformation and opportunities because of the associated reliability ofinformation and individuals involved. For example, an individualtypically is more often willing to swap a vacation home (house-swap)with a friend of a friend, even though the individual may not personallyknow the friend of a friend, than to house-swap with a stranger. A basisfor such trust is that the individual can trust that their immediatefriend would not be associated with the person offering to house-swap(e.g., friend of the friend) were the friend of a friend not reliable ortrustworthy. (Or, more generally, the immediate friend can be trusted tooffer an honest assessment of the trustworthiness of the third party.)Social networks are often relied upon for opinion based information suchas for example, movies, restaurants, travel locations and the like. Suchinformation within a large number of the general populous is typicallymore relied on than well known restaurant and movie critics.

However valuable social networks are, they can be extremely difficult toutilize in that it can be time consuming for an individual to contactevery person they have a relationship with when searching forinformation. Moreover, even if an individual could make the searchingtask easier for themselves, e.g. by creating a massive mailing list oftheir friends, addressing everyone in that list for each question ishighly antisocial and certainly unsustainable as a collective behavior,i.e. if everyone does it. In general, such type of manual searchingthrough a social network is impracticable for most individuals due inlarge part to the relative size of the individual's social network, timeconstraints, taxing of respective relationships within the socialnetwork (e.g., frequent requests for information can have a negativeimpact on a relationship), etc.

A number of approaches have been conventionally employed to obtainsocial opportunities and information from social networks. One approachthat can be used is for a person to email everyone he or she knows(e.g., buddies) requesting information on a particular subject. Thisapproach is not likely to be appreciated by individuals on the receivingend of the email, particularly if such approach is employed often; andcould possibly damage personal relationships.

Another technique to utilizing social information from social networksis to have individuals create a “home page” about themselves in whichthey describe particular attributes by which they want to be referredto, such as place of birth, high-school attended, occupation, areas ofexpertise, interests, hobbies, plans for the summer and the like. Thesepages can be associated with a search engine—then, in response to aperson with certain attributes, the requested information, possiblyincluding contact information, is returned. This approach fails for anumber of reasons. Referrals often rely on information that individualsdo not wish to be make publicly searchable. For example, typicallyindividuals prefer not to have strangers and telemarketers be able todetermine what their friends know about them, such as their hobbies andfavorite vacation spots. Additionally, people identified through such asearch can be strangers and unreliable. For example, a search forsomeone to carpool with may return an individual with a matching workschedule, but that individual could be difficult to get along with.

Thus, social networks and their direct personal relationships include atremendous amount of latent information and opportunities. However,conventional approaches for discovering these latent features fail toproperly utilize social networks in that they:

i) overtax personal relationships and cause information overload; and/or

ii) are inadequate for maintaining a sufficient level of individualprivacy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order toprovide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. Thissummary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is notintended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or todelineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to presentsome concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to themore detailed description that is presented later.

The present invention relates to systems and methodologies thatfacilitate maintaining privacy of personal information within publicdatabase search environments. The invention also can facilitateconducting general queries of databases for purposes of locatingpersonal attribute information of an unknown person, and allow anoriginator of a query to evaluate a level of trust associated with anindividual identified by a query. Moreover, the invention has an effectof providing for a private database that is publicly searchable in partdue to masking properties (e.g., not associating query results withdirect exposure of individuals that may be part of the query results) ofthe present invention.

The present invention leverages efficiencies and processing powerassociated with modern computing systems so as to expand a scope ofhuman social networks beyond what is conventionally practicable withrespect to solely human-based social networking. In other words, thesubject invention provides a computer based search system/methodologythat maps or models human social networks and exposes untapped socialopportunities (e.g., connecting individuals) at a scale and granularitynot achievable by conventional search systems or solely human-basedsocial networking. In other words, the present invention employscomputing systems to facilitate navigation through human social networksfor the discovery of social opportunities.

One particular aspect of the invention relies in part upon anindividual's willingness to truthfully state, but not necessarilypublish or advertise, personal attributes (e.g., experience, occupation,interests, hobbies, historical information, . . . ), and otherindividual(s) that can verify validity of the published attributes. Forexample, a query from an individual (e.g., person A) in accordance withone particular aspect of the invention identifies a suitable match ofindividuals (e.g., people B, C, D) that claim to have specificattributes sought after, and at least one other individual (e.g.,individual E) that can verify existence of the desired attribute.Individual E is identified by connections of for example “a friend of afriend” that map back to someone that individual A knows and trusts in asocial network environment.

In accordance with another aspect of the subject invention, human socialnetworks are abstracted into a searchable database populated withinformation related to individuals that make up the respective socialnetworks. A search engine receives a query, and an analysis is performedbased in part on the query, the source (e.g., individual) making thequery, and information, people and entities related to the query withinthe database. A mapping is performed to determine a desirable or optimalpath from the individual making the query to a person having informationrelated to what is sought after via the query. The path can, but is notrequired to be the shortest path from the individual to the personhaving the information. The search engine exposes at least a portion ofthe path to the individual making the query so as to lead the source ofthe query in the proper direction but also maintaining trust integrityassociated with the social network. Thus, if there is a node (e.g.,individual) in the path that does not wish to expose the individualmaking the query to another node in the path for any of a number ofreasons, the individual making the query is prevented from contacting(e.g., being exposed) to the other node. Such aspect of the inventionhas a firewall effect wherein respective individuals/friends (e.g.,designees) along a given path serve as gatekeepers of privacy toindividuals/friends downstream in the path. Accordingly, a powerfulhuman-based trust mechanism is employed in connection with modern daycomputing systems to provide a powerful and reliable means fornavigation through a human social network.

Thus the subject invention provides for systems and methods that enablesearches of social networks by acting as a “compass” that assists usersin navigating a social network. Individual user participation is notrequired in response to queries from other users. The systems andmethods of the subject invention offer navigational assistance orinformation as opposed to a traditional search which returns requestedinformation, thus currently acceptable social mechanisms for arbitratingtrust can be exploited. As a result, users do not make their personalinformation publicly searchable, while at the same time, they areprotected from potential misrepresentations of facts.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certainillustrative aspects of the invention are described herein in connectionwith the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspectsare indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which theprinciples of the invention may be employed and the present invention isintended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Otheradvantages and novel features of the invention may become apparent fromthe following detailed description of the invention when considered inconjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for utilizing socialinformation according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a directed graph of a social network according to anaspect of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a system for utilizing socialinformation according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a pair of users in a social network according toanother aspect of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a user's buddy list according to an aspect of theinvention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a system for utilizing socialinformation according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary interface for entering a buddy listaccording to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary entry of personal information accordingto an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary directed graph according to an aspect ofthe invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary subgraph according to an aspect of theinvention.

FIG. 11 illustrates connectivity based on corroboration informationaccording to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a system for utilizing socialinformation according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates a subgraph for a user with a subgraph distance oftwo according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram of a data packet generated in response to a queryaccording to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of modifying a socialnetwork according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for searching a socialnetwork according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 17 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary operatingenvironment for a system configured in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIG. 18 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary communicationenvironment in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is now described with reference to the drawings,wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elementsthroughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation,numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It may be evident, however, thatthe present invention may be practiced without these specific details.In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in blockdiagram form in order to facilitate describing the present invention.

As used in this application, the terms “component” and “system” areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being,a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable,a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way ofillustration, both an application running on a server and the server canbe a component. One or more components may reside within a processand/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on onecomputer and/or distributed between two or more computers.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates at a high-level a social networkingsystem 100 in accordance with the present invention. The systemfacilitates maintaining privacy of personal information within adatabase search environment, and also can facilitate conducting queriesof databases for purposes of locating personal attribute information ofan unknown person, and allow an originator of a query to evaluate alevel of trust associated with an individual identified by a query.

In accordance with the system 100, a query 102 (e.g., natural languagebased query) is received by a search engine 104, which processes in partthe query 102. For example, the query can be natural languagebased—natural language is structured so as to match a user's naturalpattern of speech. Of course, it is to be appreciated that the subjectinvention is applicable to many suitable types of querying schemes. Thesearch engine 104 includes a parser 106 that parses the query into termsgermane to the query and employs these terms in connection withexecuting an intelligible search coincident with the query 102. Theparser 106 can break down the query into fundamental indexable elementsor atomic pairs, for example. An indexing component 108 sorts the atomicpairs (e.g., word order and/or location order) and interacts withindices 114 of searchable subject matter and terms in order tofacilitate searching. Additionally, the query 102 generally includes aquery distance, which defines a distance from an originator of the query(e.g., individual, entity) to which the search is limited.

The system 100 further includes a storage 120 that stores a variety ofdata such as for example, user/entity profiles 124, indices 114, and adirected graph 130 of a social network. The profiles 124 containattributes of individuals or entities associated with a social networkin accordance with the present invention. The respective profiles canvary as to quantity as well as quality and type of attributeinformation. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the profileinformation is directly input via each respective individual or entity.However, it is to be appreciated that any of a variety of informationgathering schemes and sub-schemes (e.g., data mining, cookies, datascavenging, 3^(rd) party providers . . . ) could be employed inconnection with the subject invention if desired. The directed graph 130is a large collection of information relating to individuals andrelationships between those individuals. The directed graph 130 althoughpictorially depicted as a graph of vertices and arcs can take manydata-structure type forms (e.g., table, relational databases, XML baseddatabases), and functionally represents intra-relationships betweensubsets of individuals and/or entities within the social network. Thedirected graph 130 is discussed in greater detail below with respect toFIG. 2.

The search engine 110 thus receives the query 102 and via employment ofthe parser 106, indexing component 108, profiles 124, indices 114 andsocial network database 130 determines final node(s) (e.g.,individual(s) or entity(s)) having information corresponding to thequery 102, and also determines most efficient paths from the source ofthe query to the final node(s). The search engine 110 employs a mappingcomponent 140 in connection with mapping relevant paths from the sourceof the query to the final node(s). The search engine 110 also comprisesa privacy component 150 that facilitates determining a degree ofexposure of path portions to the source. One particular securityimplementation (e.g., babushka concept) is discussed infra in connectionwith the discussion relating to FIG. 14. The privacy component 150 canselectively expose and shield data in connection with the search inorder to maintain privacy and trusts in accordance with the subjectinvention. For example, there may be three nodes (B, C, D) within a pathfrom source A to destination E; and the privacy component may onlyexpose node B to source A as part of a query result. Node B can decidewhether or not to expose source A to a downstream node (e.g., Node C) inthe path, and likewise if applicable Node C can perform the same sort ofexposure analysis with respect to exposing Node D. Thus, the privacycomponent 150 facilitates maintaining privacy and trusts associated withrespective nodes and intra-relationships of those nodes.

It is appreciated that the query 102 can be permitted or denied by thesystem 100. The system 100 can track user performance and behavior(e.g., how many queries submitted versus how many answered). Then, basedon that behavior, the system 100 can decide whether to permit or denyrequests from that user. By so doing, a degree of fairness can beenforced by requiring users to positively contribute and not just placenumerous queries.

FIG. 2 illustrates the directed graph 130 of a social network accordingto an aspect of the invention. As noted above, the social networkdatabase 120 (FIG. 1) stores information relating to social network(s).The directed graph 130 corresponds to a subset of at least one of aplurality of the social networks that have corresponding informationstored in the social network database 120. The depicted directed graph130 is simplified for illustrative purposes only and illustrates sometypical relationships between people in a social network. It isappreciated that a social network (e.g., embodied as a directed graph)employed in accordance with the present invention can have any suitablenumber of vertices (persons) and arcs (relationships). With the graph130 individuals and/or entities in a particular social network arerepresented by vertices (e.g., nodes), and a relationship between twovertices are represented via an arc connecting the vertices. Thevertices can be annotated with information (e.g., attributes) about theindividual or entity represented by the vertex. It is to be appreciatedthat two or more arcs can be employed with respect to two vertices. Moreparticularly, a unidirectional relationship between a first vertex withrespect to a second vertex can be represented by a first arc, and aunidirectional relationship between the second vertex with respect tothe first vertex can be represented via a second arc. Moreover, it is tobe appreciated that additional arcs could be employed wherein respectivearcs can represent unique subsets corresponding to relationships.

With respect to FIG. 2, a brief example with respect to logic associatedwith a one particular aspect of a directed graph is now described withrespect to individual A and individual B having a relationship. An arcpoints from individual A to individual B indicating that A is familiarwith B (e.g., A considers B to be his or her “buddy”)—the notion offamiliarity is described in detail infra with respect to FIG. 4 andthereafter. Because of their relationship, individual A is typicallywilling to provide personal information to individual B that he/shewould not, necessarily, want made public or even want others to view.Individuals B, C and D comprise a list or buddy list of individual A,implying that A has a personal relationship with B, C and D. Therelationship of A with respect to B, C and D is illustrated by arcsconnecting A to B, C and D. The directionality of the arcs indicate thatA contacts B and D for information and is contacted by C forinformation. Individuals C and F are depicted via two arcs as having acommon pair of relationships, wherein each individual (C and F)considers the other a buddy or friend, and is willing to contact eachother for information and is willing to provide information to eachother—as noted supra, this pair of relationships can also be referred toas a bi-directional relationship. It is to be appreciated that any of anumber of suitable algorithms, programs and/or relational databaseschemes to effect the functionality associated with the directed graph130 can be employed and are intended to fall within the scope of thehereto appended claims. It is to be appreciated that individuals canhave respectively differing values (e.g., views) with respect to eachrelationship, and the subject invention contemplates reconciling suchdiffering values (e.g., to mitigate a user from abusing a systememploying the invention for example via spamming individuals bydeclaring a familiarity therewith). (See infra discussion relating toFIG. 4 and thereafter).

Turning now to FIG. 3, a specific embodiment of the subject invention isdescribed in detail. A system 300 that utilizes social informationaccording to an aspect of the invention is depicted. The system 300comprises a set of users 302, a private storage component 304 and asearch engine 306. The system 300 acts as a compass to facilitateguiding users toward reliable social information and opportunitieswhilst maintaining privacy of the set of users 302. The system 300generates a social network, maintains the social network and providesnavigation information based on the social network.

Although, the present invention describes the system 300 in primarily amonolithic sense, it is to be appreciated that after the social networkis populated, the social network can become part of a distributednetwork wherein individual computing system(s) can maintain and employthe social network. Moreover, as the social network changes the systemcan prompt the individual computing system(s) to receive an updatedversion of the social network.

Additionally, the social network once populated can be employed by3^(rd) party services (e.g., on-line auction sites) to employ the socialnetwork in connection with a social or business purpose coincident withthe 3^(rd) party's service. Furthermore, the system 300 can package thesocial network and distribute it in its entirety or in a modifiedversion to a plurality of 3^(rd) parties for independent use.

Returning to FIG. 3, the set of users 302 are a number of persons thatdesire or choose to be a member of the social network, generally, thenumber is relatively large. Respective users fill out a “buddy list”,which is a list of people they are willing to be contacted by forinformation and/or to which they are willing to contact for information.Furthermore, the buddy list is a list of people with whom a user has adirect personal relationship and an amount of familiarity. Additionally,the members of the buddy list are typically willing to corroborateinformation of the respective users. Then, after entering buddy lists,respective users directly enter personal information referred to asprofiles, about themselves by utilizing predefined semantic categoriesand predefined attributes. The categories and predefined attributespermit consistency in the personal information and improve theefficiency of entering in personal information for the set of users 302.Typically, the categories and predefined attributes are set with defaultand/or typical values to further ease the personal information enteringprocess. As an example, a hobby of computers can be pre-selected becauseit is likely to be true for a large number of the set of users 302.Additionally, previously known information about respective users can beemployed to set predefined categories and attributes. Thus, for example,cookie information for a particular user can indicate that that userfrequently visits photography based web sites, thus suggesting that theuser has a hobby of photography. As another example, merely having auser's age can provide a number of likely entries of personalinformation. Other information gathering schemes and sub-schemes (e.g.,data mining, cookies, data scavenging, third party providers and thelike) can be employed in connection with the subject invention if sodesired. It is to be appreciated that profile related information can bepopulated in a “context-sensitive” manner. Accordingly, subsets of aprofile can be employed with respect to a particular application and/orstate. Moreover, separate profiles can be created for specificapplications and/or states. For example, an individual logging onto ashopping related site could be associated with a unique persona withprofile information relating to the persona being provided by the site.Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that a first entity can generate aprofile and provide to other parties the profile and/or subset(s)thereof and/or modified versions thereof so as to be employed inapplication specific and/or in a context-sensitive manner.

It is appreciated that different users can provide or not providevarying amounts of information within their personal information. Thus,users are permitted to enter as much or as little personal informationas they choose. After the personal information is entered, the buddylists and personal information are uploaded to the private storagecomponent 304, which stores and maintains the information. Additionally,respective users are able to modify and/or update their buddy lists andtheir personal information and again upload that information to theprivate storage component 304 wherein their previous information is thenoverwritten. Similarly, respective users are able to remove themselvesand/or their information from the private storage component 304.

One suitable approach to entering the personal information or attributesis to ask respective users to write a “home page” about themselvesutilizing the categories and predefined attributes. The respective userscould obtain a generic page or template of a home page and then entertheir personal information. A number of attributes should be selectableto increase the ease of entering the personal information. For example,a user may be able to select an item from a drop down list for aparticular attribute. As another example, a user may be able to select“not applicable” for attributes that user does not wish to provideinformation for. Then, the home pages can be uploaded to the privatestorage component 304 via a secure connection that reasonably ensuresthat their personal information does not become public information.Other suitable approaches can be used to upload personal information andstill be in accordance with the present invention.

Another approach to obtaining personal information or attributes is toemploy a mechanism that interacts with web browsers. The mechanismprovides one or more buttons via a user interface. The one or morebuttons can the be utilized to selectively perform functions such as,adding current web page to hobbies, adding current web page to researchinterests, adding current web page to favorite bands and the like.

As stated above, the private storage component 304 receives the personalinformation and buddy lists from the set of users 302 and securelystores and maintains this information. The private storage component canorganize and/or index the personal information to increase searchabilityof the information. Then, the private storage component 304 generates adirected graph utilizing vertices for respective users and arcs fromrespective users to members of their buddy list that are in the set ofusers 302. The directed graph is a large collection of information(e.g., attributes) relating to the users 302 and relationships betweenthe users 302. It is appreciated that at least some members of a user'sbuddy list can be absent from the set of users and, therefore thedirected graph. The directed graph is typically depicted as a graph ofvertices (e.g., nodes) and arcs. However, the directed graph can takeother suitable data-structure type forms (e.g., table, relationaldatabases, XML based databases). The directed graph, generated by theprivate storage component 304, can resemble the directed graphillustrated with respect to FIG. 2, and described above. The privatestorage component 304 is typically implemented at a central location,yet accessible by a large number of the set of users 302. Suitableencryption techniques can be used to properly encrypt the personalinformation and the graph.

The search engine 306 is operative to receive queries from the set ofusers 302 and return query receipts to the set of users 302. The queriesare parsed into terms germane to the queries to facilitate searching.For a respective query, the search engine 306 then accesses the directedgraph stored in the private storage component 304 and obtainsappropriate or desired information. The desired information is thenprocessed to generate a query receipt. A typical query includesinformation such as, a user requesting the query, an attribute and/orinformation requested and a query distance. The query distance or querydegree is the number of arcs or vertices to which the query can extendto from the user to search for the information. After parsing the query,the search is generally performed employing a breadth first search ofthe directed graph starting at the vertex of the user requesting thequery. On finding a match of the requested information, a query receiptis generated and returned to the user. The query receipt includes areferral path to the requested information, but can be encrypted orprotected such that the user can only view a first person in thereferral path to the requested information, for example. The queryreceipt can be in any number of suitable formats, such as, for example,an encrypted data packet, an encrypted data packet utilizing privatekeys, a password protected hyperlink and the like. The user can thencontact the first person on the referral path with the query receipt andit is up to that first person to assist in obtaining the requestedinformation. The first person is able to view the next person thereferral path to the requested information. One can think of the entirepath corresponding to the answer as taking the form of a virtualbabooshka. The first user, making the query, can see what is the personthey should talk to. They then forward the babooshka to that person, whoequipped with a unique key, can “remove” the outer doll and see who isthe person they should contact and so on.

For example, utilizing the directed graph of FIG. 2, user U requests aquery for information with a query distance of 1. It can be seen fromthe directed graph of FIG. 2 that a buddy list of U comprises users Cand F. The personal information of users C and F are searched for U'srequested information. If neither C nor F has the requested information,a query receipt is returned with a “not found” message. If C or F doeshave the requested information, a query receipt is returned identifyinga referral path to the requested information, but not the requestedinformation. The user U can then contact the first user in the referralpath to request the information. In some aspects of the invention, theuser U can obtain or access the requested information because theuser(s) is in their buddy list and within one degree or distance fromthe user. As another example, again utilizing the directed graph of FIG.2, user U requests a query for information with a query distance of 3.As described above, C and F are searched for the requested information.However, the users in C's buddy list and F's buddy list are alsosearched. From FIG. 2, it can be seen that C's buddy list includes usersA, D and F and that F's buddy list includes C and L. Because the querydistance is 3, the buddy lists of A, D, C and L are also searched forthe information. It can be seen that A's buddy list include B and D, D'sbuddy list includes P and E, C's buddy list includes A, D and F, and L'sbuddy list includes H. Thus, P, E and H are also searched for therequested information. For this example, assume that user P has therequested information. A query receipt is returned to user U identifyingthe user in U's buddy list on the referral path towards user P. Thequery receipt would, for this example, identify C as the person towardswhom U should seek the requested information. As before, the queryreceipt does not return the requested information. U can then contactuser C with the query receipt. Typically, user U can simply email thequery receipt to C. Here, C is unable to provide the requestedinformation and is only provided with the next user in the referral pathto user P, user D. C can also contact user D with the query receipt.Alternately, C can simply refuse to assist U and U is then unable toobtain the requested information. Like user C, user D also does not havethe information. But, user D is aware, from the query receipt, that userP may have the information. As with user C, user D can simply refuse toassist user C. D then contacts user P with the query receipt. P is thenable to provide or deny the information. P can then provide (e.g., viainstant messaging or email) the requested information to user D, whothen can provide the requested information to user C who can then,provide the requested information to user U. The requested informationcan be encoded so that only user U is able to obtain it. In otheraspects of the invention, user P can directly contact user U, which isparticularly helpful if the requested information is, for example,someone in a particular city.

It is to be appreciated that various policing mechanisms can be employedif desired to regulate use of the present invention. For example, anindividual may be required to participate in serving as part of path(s)for various queries in order to make a particular number of queries.Moreover, such mechanism can be effected at a more granular levelwherein if node A makes requests of node B x number of times, node Amust assist node B in connection with x number of requests from Node B.

FIG. 4 illustrates a diagram 400 of relationships for a pair of users ina social network according to another aspect of the invention. A firstview 402 of the relationships that a user P has with another user Q anda second view 404 of the relationships that the user Q has with the userP are depicted. Thus, in effect, between any two nodes fours arcs exists(e.g., one pair of arcs relating to perceptions of the relationship fromeach nodes point of view, and the other pair relating to an actualrespective view of the node(s) relationship). Accordingly,reconciliation can be performed so as to converge to a lowest valuebetween respective arcs. As is readily apparent, such reconciliation canserve as a fundamental mechanism against employing the subject inventionin connection with spam since data is passed based on a value that isrepresentative of the true relationship between nodes as compared to aperceived notion regarding the relationship. The relationships betweenusers can be defined by familiarity—thus, according to the user P, P hasa familiarity with another user Q as indicated by P_(H) and P_(F) and Qhas a familiarity with P as indicated by Q_(H) and Q_(F). Familiarityvalues can have a number of levels or values wherein higher values orlevels indicate greater degrees of familiarity. For example, P can havea familiarity with Q wherein the familiarity is “very familiar” meaningthat user P would not hesitate to contact user Q, even for relativelyminor matters or information (e.g., P_(H)). This “very familiar” levelis denoted by assigning a relatively large value to the arc P_(H).Likewise, assigning a relatively low value to the arc P_(H) indicatesthat P is merely “somewhat familiar” with Q and that P would hesitate tocontact Q. The familiarity is assigned a value within a predeterminedrange with highest values corresponding to highest degrees offamiliarity. Additionally, the user P assigns a familiarity value P_(F)which indicates a willingness to be contacted by Q for information.Similarly, the user Q also assigns familiarity values Q_(H) and Q_(F).However, it is appreciated that familiarity is an asymmetric notion,thus, for example, the familiarity assigned to P_(H) can be differentthan the familiarity assigned to Q_(F). For example, user P can considerhimself to be very familiar with Q whereas user Q can consider himselfto be only somewhat familiar with user P. Such differences can bereconciled via a number of suitable approaches. One such approach is toinitially assign familiarity values as 0 and to block interactionbetween two users unless both have assigned familiarity values greaterthan zero to the same relationship. Additionally, a final value of therelationship can be determined by mitigating one user's assignment withthe others (e.g., by assigning the arc from P to Q with the minimum ofQ_(F) and P_(H)).

A buddy list has been described above as a list of people or users thata given user has a direct relationship and an associated familiaritywith. However, these relationships can be defined with more than theassociated familiarity because relationships can be more complex. Somerelationships are “unidirectional” implying that an individual or usercan ask another for information, but that other person does not ask theindividual or user for information. As an example, a student can contacta teacher for information but the teacher does not, typically, contactthe student for information. Thus, the buddy list can be divided intotwo non-disjoint groups or categories, fans and heroes such that memberscan be fans and heroes simultaneously. Each member (buddy) in the buddylist is also assigned a familiarity or degree of familiarity. The term“fans” is defined to include members (buddies) that have at least thefollowing two properties; the user perceives value in helping thesemembers find information and the user trusts these members' judgmentregarding when it is appropriate to contact the user. Thus, assigning ahigh familiarity to a “fan” implies that the fan can contact the usersubstantially any time. The term “heroes” is defined to include members(buddies) that have at least the following property; the user is willingto contact these members for information. Similarly, assigning a highvalue to a “hero” implies that the user can call the hero atsubstantially any time.

Thus, FIG. 5 illustrates a respective user of a social network and thatuser's buddy list according to an aspect of the invention. The user (U)is illustrated having three fans (F1, F2 and F3) that can contact U forinformation. The user (U) is also illustrated having three heroes (H1,H2 and H3) that U contacts for information. It is appreciated that atleast some fans can be heroes and that at least some heroes can also befans. It is further appreciated that a user in a social networkaccording to the present invention is not limited to a particular numberof fans, heroes and members of a buddy list. FIG. 5 merely illustratesthree fans and three heroes for illustrative purposes only.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram depicting a system 600 for utilizing socialinformation according to an aspect of the invention. The system 600comprises a set of users 602, a private storage component 604 and asearch engine 606. The system 600 acts as a compass to guide userstoward reliable social information and opportunities whilst maintainingprivacy of the set of users 602. The system 600 generates a socialnetwork (via a graph), maintains the social network and providesnavigation information based on the social network.

The set of users 602 are a number of persons or users that are membersof the social network. Generally, the number of users in the system 600is relatively large. Respective users fill out a “buddy list”, which isa list of people they are willing to share their information with and/orto whom they are willing to permit access to their information. Forrespective members (e.g., buddies) of the buddy list 608, users enter orprovide a name, familiarity or degree of familiarity with the member andindicate whether the member is a fan, a hero or both. The name can be afull name or a username. The familiarity has a range of possible values(e.g., 1 to 10 or 1 to 100) where, typically, a higher number indicatesa greater degree of familiarity. The member is indicated as a hero ifthe user is willing to contact this member for information, a fan if theuser is willing to be contacted by this member for information or bothif the user is willing to contact and to be contacted by this member.Additionally, a fan should be willing to corroborate personalinformation entered by the user although this is not necessarily valid.

It is appreciated that people can have differing views on their personalrelationships. Thus, a user can view a member of the user's buddy list608 as being a hero with a high degree of familiarity but that membercan view that user as being unfamiliar and not a fan and can fail toinclude that user on the member's own buddy list. Thus, entry of a buddylist does not generally require checking and/or verification todetermine if, for example, other users agree.

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates an exemplary interface 700 for enteringa buddy list 508 according to an aspect of the present invention. Theinterface 700 can be employed with the system 600 in FIG. 6, forexample. The interface 700 permits an entry for respective members of auser's buddy list and includes a member name, familiarity, heroindication and fan indication. The member name typically corresponds toanother user of the system 600 but can be, for example, a person who isnot currently a member or user of the system 600. The familiarityindicates a degree or an amount of familiarity that a user has with amember of the user's buddy list. The familiarity is a range of valuesand is illustrated as a range of 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the mostfamiliar. The interface 700 can employ a drop down list to allow a userto easily select the familiarity. The hero and fan indicate whether theuser considers this particular member to be a hero, fan or both. Theinterface 700 can employ a checkbox to permit a user to easily selectthe hero and/or fan indicators. FIG. 7 depicts members A, B and C of abuddy list. The user has a low familiarity with A (2) and considers A tobe a hero. The user has a high familiarity with B (10) but onlyconsiders B to be a fan. The user has an average familiarity with C (5)and considers C to be a fan and a hero.

Then, respective users enter personal information about themselves,referred to as profiles. The profiles are generally entered utilizingpredefined categories and attributes, which permit consistency in thepersonal information for the set of users 602. However, it is to beappreciated that any suitable scheme in accordance with the subjectinvention for profile-creation is contemplated and intended to fallwithin the scope of the hereto appended claims. Additionally, thecategories and predefined attributes can be set with default or typicalvalues to ease the personal information entering process. It isappreciated that different users can provide or not provide varyingamounts of information within their personal information. Thus, usersare permitted to enter as much or as little personal information as theyprefer.

FIG. 8 illustrates a typical exemplary entry 800 of personal informationin accordance with the present invention. Several categories 802 and oneor more attributes 704 for the respective categories are depicted. Thus,for example, navigation information towards this user can be returnedbased on a query for a red convertible for sale. One suitable approachfor entering the personal information or profile employs a generic pageor template of a home page that assists entering such information. Asdiscussed in greater detail infra, creating a home page can amount tomaking statements about oneself that a 3^(rd) party (e.g., fan) wouldnot mind corroborating. A number of attributes should be selectable toincrease the ease of entering the personal information. For example, auser may be able to select an item from a drop down list for aparticular attribute. As another example, a user may be able to select“not applicable” for attributes that a user does not wish to provideinformation for. Then, the home pages can be uploaded to the privatestorage component 604 (FIG. 6) via a secure connection that reasonablyensures that their personal information does not become publicinformation. Other suitable approaches can be used to upload personalinformation (e.g., data mining, cookies, data scavenging, third partyproviders and the like) and still be in accordance with the presentinvention.

Returning to FIG. 6, after the personal information 610 and buddy lists608 are entered for the set of users 602, the buddy lists 608 andpersonal information 610 (also referred to as user information) areuploaded to the private storage component 604, which stores andmaintains the information. Additionally, respective users are able tomodify their buddy lists and their personal information and again uploadthat information to the private storage component 604 wherein theirprevious information is then overwritten. Similarly, respective usersare able to remove their information and/or themselves from the privatestorage component 604.

The private storage component 604 receives the personal information andbuddy lists from the set of users 602. The private storage component 604securely stores this information and does not make it publiclyavailable. The private storage component 604 includes a graph generator612 that generates a directed graph utilizing vertexes for respectiveusers and arcs from respective users to members of their buddy list thatare in the set of users 602. However, it is appreciated that alternateaspects of the invention can utilize other data-structure type forms,such as tables, relational databases, XML based databases and the like.The direction of the arcs in the directed graph indicates the type ofrelationship between pairs of users. Thus, for example, FIG. 9illustrates at least a portion of an exemplary directed graph generatedfor system 600. The arc between users C and D indicates a relationshipwherein C considers D a hero and D considers C a fan. It is appreciatedthat the arc between C and D would not exist if D did not consider C afan or if C did not consider D a hero. The relationships, modeled by thearcs, also include a familiarity value. Since, as discussed above, userscan disagree on familiarity values, the minimum value for a relationshipis utilized. Employing the minimum of two declared familarilitiesresults in a more accurate representation of a social opportunity alongthe respective arc. Thus, as another example, if C set a familiarityvalue of 7 and D set a familiarity value of 6, the minimum value, 6, isemployed for the relationship between C and D. Additionally, such ascheme allows for either vertex of an arc to revise familiarity alongthe arc without the other vertex's knowledge and to affirmativelyrespond to possible abuses of an intra-relationship. Briefly referringto FIG. 4, it is appreciated that within a social network, egos exist,and as such it is significant to determine the extent to which P, Q candiscover any discrepancy on their values for P→Q by employing theaforementioned mechanism. Without loss of generality, assume that P'svalue on the arc P→Q is greater than that of Q (e.g., P has aself-important view of his relationship with Q). In such scenarios, Qmay not desire to have P learn of a discrepancy in familiarity valueassigned to the arc—if Q does not care (as in the case of spammers),there is no issue.

As long as P makes queries for which P is not aware that Q is a goodsource, then P will not discover that Q has a lower view of theirrelationship. For P to be aware of the discrepancy, P would have todiscover that Q is a good source on a subject (e.g., subject X) and forP or a fan of P to make a request for information on that subject.However, even if the discrepancy is discovered by P, Q can avoidpotential conflicts (e.g., hurt feelings) by informing P that he or shesimply forgot to enter P as a fan or subject X in Q's profile. Q canthen update his or her profile to include the subject matter (e.g.,subject X) and/or add P as a fan but not include or remove other subjectmatter which P likely is not aware of Q having. Additionally, in anotheraspect of the invention, Q can adjust his or her profile to limit P onlyto particular subject matter of which P knows Q is a good source of. Ofcourse, since P knows Q, there is nothing preventing P from contacting Qby other means (e.g., phone, email . . . ) to obtain or requestinformation. However, it is possible to limit fan's access to certainaspects of “myself” (e.g., certain attributes or information), whichalso facilitates fans corroboration of and trustworthiness of attributesand information entered by users.

Additionally, the relationship of P→Q implies that P is willing tocorroborate the information entered by Q, which in reality may or maynot be true. If this implication is not true, this failure only becomesrelevant when a user enters a query for which Q is a good “match”(according to himself), otherwise the failure is irrelevant (e.g., itdoes not manifest itself in the world. Additionally, unless a userapproaches P with a request for introduction to Q based on a referralpath, Q's failure is again irrelevant.

Referring to FIG. 6 again, it is also appreciated that at least somemembers of a user's buddy list can be absent from the set of users and,therefore the directed graph. Alternately, a non member in a buddy listcan simply be maintained in the directed graph without their entry ofinformation. The private storage component 604 is typically implementedat a central location. Suitable encryption techniques can be used toproperly encrypt the personal information and the graph.

The search engine 606 is operative to receive queries from the set ofusers 602 and return directed subgraphs to the set of users 602. Thesearch engine 606 accesses the directed graph in the private storagecomponent 604 and obtains appropriate information, which in turn becomesthe query receipts. A query is generated by a respective user of the setof users 602. The query is parsed to obtain query information including,but not limited to information such as, a user requesting the query, anattribute and/or information requested familiarity limit and a querydistance. The query distance is the number of arcs or vertices to whichthe query can extend to from the user to search for the information. Theattribute and/or information requested can include information such as,person selling red convertible or person living in Chicago Ill. Thefamiliarity limit sets a minimum value for searching the directed graph.If the familiarity limit is below a particular familiarity between twousers, the search does not utilize that arc and therefore therelationship between those two users. The search is typically performedby employing a breadth first search of the directed graph starting atthe vertex of the user requesting the query. On finding a match of therequested information, a subgraph, which is a directed graphillustrating the referral path or map to the desired information, isgenerated. The subgraph is then encoded according to the users along thesubgraph such that the users are only able to access a portion of thesubgraph.

FIG. 10 depicts an exemplary subgraph 1000 of the directed graph of FIG.9. For an exemplary query by user U that identifies user P as having therequested information, the subgraph 1000 is encrypted and returned tothe user U. However, the user U is not able to view the whole subgraph1000, but can only view the arc from users U to C. The user U can thensend the subgraph 1000 to user C who can view the arc from users C to D,the next user in the referral path. Likewise, C can send the subgraph1000 to user C who can view the arc from users D to P. The user P canthen contact the user U with the requested information. It isappreciated that the subgraph returned provides navigational informationtowards the social information and/or opportunities requested, but notthe actual information or opportunities requested.

It is also appreciated that the requested information received by a useras a result of system 600 should be relatively reliable. Fans of theuser providing the requested information can be utilized to corroboratethe requested information. For example, a query to find the bestshuffleboard player in Chicago Ill. can, after following navigationalinformation reveal a shuffleboard player in Chicago. However, the system600 does not independently verify the accuracy of information entered,thus, it is possible that this person is not really the bestshuffleboard player. Thus, a fan of the shuffle board player can becontacted to corroborate this information (e.g., the fan indicates thatthe shuffleboard player is a good shuffleboard player).

There are a few different possibilities for a user Q who is a fan of Pregarding corroboration of information entered by P. A first case iswhen Q feels that the claim is false to the point of casting P in a badlight (e.g., P claims to be a psychic). In that case, Q can choose tostop considering P as a hero and modify Q's buddy list. A second case iswhen Q feels that the claim made by P is false, but not malicious (e.g.,P is deluded about his shuffleboard game but is otherwise a swellfellow). Q would like to block requests to introduce P to his fans whenthey seek a great tennis player. Another case is when Q is willing tocorroborate all statements made by P, but only to a subset of Q's fans.A last case occurs when Q is willing to corroborate subsets ofstatements made by P to subsets of his own, i.e Q's, fans. As statedabove, the first case is resolved by Q removing P from Q's set ofheroes. For the second case, Q can declare that P is a good fellow butis not a good tennis player on, for example, an about page. For thethird and fourth cases, Q can provide corroboration informationregarding P that adjusts the social connections that Q is willing tofacilitate. Then, the directed graph can be further modified to includecorroboration connections based on this corroboration information. Thecorroboration connections block requests from fans to some heroes. Thus,connections are maintained where Q is willing to facilitate andeliminated where Q is not willing to facilitate connections.

FIG. 11 illustrates connections based according to another aspect of theinvention. Missing connections correspond to an unwillingness to connectfan(s) to hero(es). The set of users 602 (FIG. 6) can explicitly specifythese connections and/or group fans and heroes into categories and thendefine connections between the categories is rather than between all thepairs of individuals in a pair of categories. The “very hard” categoryfrom above is not illustrated in FIG. 11, but can be implemented bysubdividing information of P into sets by Q and then selecting whichfans can have access to the respective sets of information through Q.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a system 1200 for utilizingsocial information according to an aspect of the invention. The system1200 comprises a set of users 1202, a subgraph encrypter component 1206and a coordinator 1204. The system 1200 acts as a compass to guide userstoward reliable social information and opportunities whilst maintainingprivacy of the set of users 1202 by providing navigational informationin response to a query.

The set of users 1202 are a number of persons or users that are membersof the social network. Generally, the number of users in the system 1200is relatively large. Respective users fill out a “buddy list”, which isa list of people they are willing to share their information with and/orto whom they are willing to permit access to their information. Forrespective members (buddies) of the buddy list, users enter or provide aname, familiarity or degree of familiarity with the member and indicatewhether the member is a fan, a hero or both. The name can be a full nameor a username. The familiarity is of a range of possible values (e.g., 1to 10 or 1 to 100) where, typically, a higher number indicates a greaterdegree of familiarity. The member is indicated as a hero if the user iswilling to contact this member for information, a fan if the user iswilling to be contacted by this member for information or both if theuser is willing to contact and to be contacted by this member.Additionally, a fan should be willing to corroborate personalinformation entered by the user although this is not necessarily valid.For example, individual A declares individual F as a fan if A would likeF to corroborate A's personal information. Whether individual F actuallysatisifies that role is up to his/her discretion (e.g., manifested bydeclaring A as a hero).

It is appreciated that people can have differing views on their personalrelationships. Thus, a user can view a member of the user's buddy listas being a hero with a high degree of familiarity but that member canview that user as being unfamiliar and not a fan and can fail to includethat user on the member's own buddy list. Thus, entry of a buddy listdoes not generally require checking and/or verification to determine if,for example, other users agree.

Then, respective users enter personal information, referred to asprofiles about themselves utilizing predefined categories andattributes. The categories and predefined attributes permit consistencyin the personal information for the set of users 602. Additionally, thecategories and predefined attributes can be set with default or typicalvalues to ease the personal information entering process. It isappreciated that different users can provide or not provide varyingamounts of information within their personal information. Thus, usersare permitted to enter as much or as little personal information as theyprefer.

One suitable approach to entering the personal information is to employa generic page or template of a home page and that assists enteringtheir personal information. A number of attributes should be selectableto increase the ease of entering the personal information. For example,a user may be able to select an item from a drop down list for aparticular attribute. As another example, a user may be able to select“not applicable” for attributes that user does not wish to provideinformation for. Other suitable approaches can be employed and still bein accordance with the present invention. Additionally, the set of users1202 can enter corroboration information to determine which fans ofrespective users have access to which heroes of respective users. It isappreciated that users can provide as little or as much corroborationinformation as they are inclined to. For example, a user can provide nocorroboration information implying that all fans of the user can beconnected through that user to all heroes of that user. Thecorroboration information can be entered or provided via an about pageor template.

Once entered, the personal information, buddy lists and corroborationinformation are uploaded to the coordinator 1204. The information can beuploaded on a user by user case and can also be updated. Also, thepersonal information and corroboration information can be encrypted.Additionally, respective users are able to modify their buddy lists,corroboration information and their personal information and againupload that information to the coordinator 1204.

The coordinator 1204 receives the personal information, corroborationinformation and buddy lists from the set of users 1202 and generatessubgraphs. Generally, a subgraph is generated for a respective useraccording to a subgraph distance. The user for which a subgraph isgenerated can be referred to as a base user. The subgraph distancerefers to a distance or size of the subgraph and is similar to thedistance used in searching. The subgraph distance limits the distancefor which a user can submit queries. An exemplary subgraph distancevalue is two or three, however other suitable values can be utilized.FIG. 13 is a diagram of a subgraph 1300 generated for user C of FIG. 1with a subgraph distance of two. It can be seen that the subgraph 1300of FIG. 13 is smaller than the graph 100 of FIG. 1. The subgraphs aregenerated similar to how the graph in system 600 of FIG. 6 is generated,except that the subgraphs are limited to the subgraph distance and arecentered at respective users.

The subgraph encrypter 1206 receives the subgraphs from the coordinator1204 and encrypts the subgraphs according to the set of users 1202. Theencrypted subgraphs are then provided to the set of users 1202. Asubgraph for a respective user is encrypted specifically for that user.The respective users of the set of users 1202 then receive their uniqueencrypted subgraph that is typically stored on local users' systems.

The users can then perform queries and obtain navigation informationfrom the encrypted subgraphs similar to that in system 600 of FIG. 6. Aquery is generated by a respective user of the set of users 602. A querytypically includes information such as, a user requesting the query, anattribute and/or information requested, a familiarity limit and a querydistance, although the user requesting the query is not generallyrequired. The query distance is the number of arcs or vertices to whichthe query can extend to from the user to search for the information. Thequery distance is, necessarily, limited to the subgraph distance, thus,for a subgraph having a subgraph distance of 2, the query distance cannot exceed 2. The attribute and/or information requested can includeinformation such as, person selling red convertible or person living inChicago Ill. The familiarity limit sets a minimum value for searchingthe directed graph. If the familiarity limit is below a particularfamiliarity between two users, the search does not utilize that arc andtherefore the relationship between those two users. The search isperformed employing a breadth first search of the subgraph starting atthe vertex of the user requesting the query (e.g., the user thatgenerated the query). On finding a match of the requested information,navigational information is provided for the user. It is appreciatedthat the navigational information facilitates finding and/or obtainingthe social information and/or opportunities requested, but not theactual information or opportunities requested.

Turning now to FIG. 14, a block diagram of a data packet 1400 generatedin response to a user query in accordance with an aspect of the presentinvention is depicted. The data packet 1400 employs a babushka/wrapperconcept with respect to security wherein various portions of the datapacket are respectively secured (e.g., encryption, password protected .. . ) such that only an individual or entity authorized to access theportion can. Thus, although the data packet may contain all dataregarding a given path, exposure of portions of the data is selectiverelative to a predefined authorization/authentication scheme. Asdiscussed supra, a typical response to a user query is to generate aquery receipt. According to an aspect of the present invention, thequery receipt comprises a data packet 1400, which is encrypted withlayers that controllable expose to users depending upon their placealong the path to desired information. The data packet 1400 can includeall information regarding the path but regulate access to the data inorder to maintain privacy in accordance with the subject invention.Generally, the data packet 1400 is provided to the user that initiatedthe query and is passed along a referral path in order to possiblyobtain the desired information.

The data packet 1400 is depicted as comprising encrypted layersincluding a first layer 1402, a second layer 1404, a third layer 1406and a core layer 1408. It is appreciated that alternate aspects of thepresent invention can have more or less layers in the data packet 1400and still be in accordance with the present invention. The first layer1402 is also referred to as an outer layer and is accessible by the userthat initiated the query. Typically, the user unwraps or obtains theinformation contained in the outer layer by employing a key assigned tothe user by a system managing the social network. The informationobtained includes at least a next user along the referral path.Additionally, the information can also optionally include a length ofthe referral path and other similar information. The user then sends thedata packet 1400 to a second user on the referral path.

The second user can access the second layer 1404 by means of a keysupplied the system. A third user in the referral path is obtained fromthe second layer and the second user can pass the data packet 1400 tothe third person. Similarly, the third user is operative to access thethird layer 1406 by means of a key supplied the system. A final user isobtained from the third layer 1406 and the data packet 1400 is thenpassed to the final user.

At this point, the data packet 1400 only contains the core layer 1408(It is to be appreciated that the subject invention is not limited totwo paths). The core layer 1408 comprises the requested information andidentifies the user requesting the information (e.g., by means of a keysupplied by the system). The final user can decide not to provide therequested information to the user that requested the information.Otherwise, the final user sends the desired information to the requesteduser. The desired information can be encrypted so as to only permitaccess by the requesting user.

In view of the exemplary systems shown and described above,methodologies that may be implemented in accordance with the presentinvention will be better appreciated with reference to the flow diagramsof FIGS. 15-16. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, themethodology is shown and described as a series of blocks, it is to beunderstood and appreciated that the present invention is not limited bythe order of the blocks, as some blocks may, in accordance with thepresent invention, occur in different orders and/or concurrently withother blocks from that shown and described herein. Moreover, not allillustrated blocks may be required to implement the methodology inaccordance with the present invention.

The invention may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed byone or more components. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, objects, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasksor implement particular abstract data types. Typically the functionalityof the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired invarious embodiments.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram depicting a method 1500 generating and/ormodifying a social network of utilizing a social network according to anaspect of the invention. The method 1500 generates a directed graph thatrepresents social information and relationships for individuals and/orentities.

Personal information is received relating to an individual or entity at1502. The personal information includes attributes, corroborationinformation and relationships (e.g., buddy list) for that individual orentity. The personal information includes, but is not limited to,geographic information, hobbies, favorite foods, restaurants, movies,items for trade, items for sale and the like. The relationshipinformation indicates which existing individuals or entities of thenetwork the individual or entity has a relationship with, specifies thetype of relationship (e.g., fan, hero or both) and designates afamiliarity for the respective relationships. Then, a determination ismade as to whether the individual or entity is new to the social networkat 1504 by, for example, searching the social network for the individualor entity.

If the individual or entity is new, the individual or entity is added tothe social network, represented as the directed graph, as a new node orvertex at 1506. The new node is added along with the personalinformation received at 1502. The attributes can be organized in ahierarchal manner according to predefined categories so as to facilitatesearches of the information. Subsequently, new arcs are added to thedirected graph at 1508 from the new node to other existing nodesaccording to the relationship information previously received. Thedirectionality of the arcs is obtained by the types of the relationshipbeing represented by the arcs. Then, the familiarities are assigned orupdated for the arcs according to the received information at 1510.Generally, a higher familiarity indicates a greater degree offamiliarity between a pair individuals and/or entities. However, if eachof the individuals or entities of the pair has indicated differingfamiliarities, the minimum of the two can be assigned to the respectivearc.

At 1504, if the individual or entity is not new to the social network, adetermination is then made at 1512 as to whether new arcs are to beadded to the directed graph (e.g., indicating that relationships havechanged for the individual or entity). If new arcs are needed, the newarcs are added at 1514 from the node representing the individual orentity to existing nodes according to the received relationshipinformation. Additionally, the method 1500 can remove existing arcsaccording to the relationship information. Then, the attributes for theindividual or entity are updated at 1516 by adding, modifying and/ordeleting information about the individual or entity. Finally,familiarities can be updated at 1510, as described above, according tothe relationship information received for the individual or entity.

Prior to the personal information being received at 1502, individuals orentities (e.g., users) enter their information in accordance with anumber of suitable approaches that have previously been describedherein, but omitted for brevity. Additionally, the method is describedas representing the social network as the directed graph; however, it isappreciated that the social network can be represented with othersuitable data structures or representations in alternate aspects of theinvention, also previously described.

In an alternate aspect of the invention, a subgraph is generated forrespective members of the social network instead of a single directedgraph of the complete social network. The subgraphs collectivelycomprise substantially the same information as the directed graph.However, the subgraphs originate at a base node (e.g., the individual orentity to which the subgraph is generated) and extend a number ofdegrees referred to as a subgraph limit.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a method 1600 of searching asocial network according to an aspect of the invention. The methodfacilitates maintaining privacy of personal information within adatabase search environment, and also can permits queries for purposesof locating personal attribute information of an unknown person, andallow an originator of a query to evaluate a level of trust associatedwith an individual identified by a query.

In accordance with the method 1600, a user query (e.g., natural languagebased query) is generated at 1602. The user is an individual or entitythat is a member of the social network. The query can then be parsedinto terms germane to the query such as, for example indexable elementsand/or atomic pairs. Of course, it is appreciated that the subjectinvention is applicable to other suitable types of querying schemes. Thequery typically includes requested information, minimum familiarity anda search distance or limit. A directed graph, representing the socialnetwork, is searched at 1604 for the requested information. The directedgraph is searched via a breadth first search from the user's nodeextending through nodes connected to the user's node according to theminimum familiarity and the search limit for the requested information.Thus, the search at 1604 only proceeds through arcs having at least theminimum familiarity and within the search limit (e.g., number of arcstraversed). If the requested information is not obtained or identifiedat 1606, the user is notified of the failure at 1608. The user can thenrevise the parameters of query (e.g., expanding the search terms,lowering the minimum familiarity, increasing the search distance . . . )and re-enter the new or revised query at 1602.

If the requested information is identified at 1606, the method 1600 thengenerates one or more referral paths to the information at 1610. The oneor more referral paths are paths from the user's node towards a nodethat has the requested information, referred to as a final node. Anoptimal or “best” path of the one or more referral paths can bedetermined according to the familiarities of the arcs to the requestedinformation and the number of arcs to the information (e.g., distance).Then, a portion of the optimal path is exposed to the user at 1612.Generally, the portion exposed or exposed node is initially a first nodealong the path. The user then makes a request to the exposed node at1614 to expose a next node and or the requested information. The exposednode generally can only provide the requested information if it is thefinal or last node of the referral path. If the exposed node cooperatesat 1616, the next node of the referral path is exposed to the user at1618. The method then continues at 1616 once again wherein the nextexposed node decides whether or not to cooperate. If the exposed noderefuses to cooperate at 1616, a determination is made as to whetheranother referral path is available at 1620. If there is another referralpath of the one or more referral paths remaining, the method continuesat 1612 where the optimal path is now the best or optimal of the pathsremaining. Otherwise, if no referral paths remain, the user can thenrevise the parameters of query (e.g., expanding the search terms,lowering the minimum familiarity, increasing the search distance . . . )and enter a revised or new query at 1602.

In an alternative aspect of the invention, a subgraph for the user issearched instead of the directed graph. Subgraphs for members of thesocial network exist wherein the subgraphs collectively comprisesubstantially the same information as the directed graph. However, thesubgraphs originate at a base node (e.g., the individual or entity towhich the subgraph is generated) and extend a number of degrees referredto as a subgraph limit.

In order to provide additional context for various aspects of thepresent invention, FIG. 17 and the following discussion are intended toprovide a brief, general description of one possible suitable computingenvironment 1710 in which the various aspects of the present inventionmay be implemented. It is to be appreciated that the computingenvironment 1710 is but one possible computing environment and is notintended to limit the computing environments with which the presentinvention can be employed. While the invention has been described abovein the general context of computer-executable instructions that may runon one or more computers, it is to be recognized that the invention alsomay be implemented in combination with other program modules and/or as acombination of hardware and software. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, components, data structures, etc. that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover,one will appreciate that the inventive methods may be practiced withother computer system configurations, including single-processor ormultiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, aswell as personal computers, hand-held computing devices,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, and the like,each of which may be operatively coupled to one or more associateddevices. The illustrated aspects of the invention may also be practicedin distributed computing environments where certain tasks are performedby remote processing devices that are linked through a communicationsnetwork. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may belocated in both local and remote memory storage devices.

FIG. 17 illustrates one possible hardware configuration to support thesystems and methods described herein. It is to be appreciated thatalthough a standalone architecture is illustrated, that any suitablecomputing environment can be employed in accordance with the presentinvention. For example, computing architectures including, but notlimited to, stand alone, multiprocessor, distributed, client/server,minicomputer, mainframe, supercomputer, digital and analog can beemployed in accordance with the present invention.

With reference to FIG. 17, an exemplary environment 1710 forimplementing various aspects of the invention includes a computer 1712,including a processing unit 1714, a system memory 1716, and a system bus1718 that couples various system components including the system memoryto the processing unit 1714. The processing unit 1714 maybe any ofvarious commercially available processors. Dual microprocessors andother multi-processor architectures also can be used as the processingunit 1714.

The system bus 1718 may be any of several types of bus structureincluding a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and alocal bus using any of a variety of commercially available busarchitectures. The computer memory 1716 includes read only memory (ROM)1720 and random access memory (RAM) 1722. A basic input/output system(BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within the computer 1712, such as during start-up, isstored in ROM 1720.

The computer 1712 may further include a hard disk drive 1724, a magneticdisk drive 1726, e.g., to read from or write to a removable disk 1728,and an optical disk drive 1730, e.g., for reading a CD-ROM disk 1732 orto read from or write to other optical media. The hard disk drive 1724,magnetic disk drive 1726, and optical disk drive 1730 are connected tothe system bus 1718 by a hard disk drive interface 1734, a magnetic diskdrive interface 1736, and an optical drive interface 1738, respectively.The computer 1712 typically includes at least some form of computerreadable media. Computer readable media can be any available media thatcan be accessed by the computer 1712. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage mediaand communication media. Computer storage media includes volatile andnonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any methodor technology for storage of information such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computerstorage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flashmemory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD)or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be usedto store the desired information and which can be accessed by thecomputer 1612. Communication media typically embodies computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data in amodulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transportmechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term“modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of itscharacteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode informationin the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communicationmedia includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wiredconnection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and otherwireless media. Combinations of any of the above should also be includedwithin the scope of computer readable media.

A number of program modules may be stored in the drives and RAM 1722,including an operating system 1740, one or more application programs1742, other program modules 1744, and program non-interrupt data 1746.The operating system 1740 in the computer 1712 can be any of a number ofcommercially available operating systems.

A user may enter commands and information into the computer 1712 througha keyboard 1748 and a pointing device, such as a mouse 1750. Other inputdevices (not shown) may include a microphone, an IR remote control, ajoystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like. Theseand other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 1714through a serial port interface 1752 that is coupled to the system bus1718, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port,a game port, a universal serial bus (“USB”), an IR interface, etc. Amonitor 1754, or other type of display device, is also connected to thesystem bus 1718 via an interface, such as a video adapter 1756. Inaddition to the monitor, a computer typically includes other peripheraloutput devices (not shown), such as speakers, printers etc.

The computer 1712 may operate in a networked environment using logicaland/or physical connections to one or more remote computers, such as aremote computer(s) 1758. The remote computer(s) 1758 may be aworkstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer,microprocessor based entertainment appliance, a peer device or othercommon network node, and typically includes many or all of the elementsdescribed relative to the computer 1712, although, for purposes ofbrevity, only a memory storage device 1760 is illustrated. The logicalconnections depicted include a local area network (LAN) 1762 and a widearea network (WAN) 1764. Such networking environments are commonplace inoffices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 1712 isconnected to the local network 1762 through a network interface oradapter 1766. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer1712 typically includes a modem 1768, or is connected to acommunications server on the LAN, or has other means for establishingcommunications over the WAN 1764, such as the Internet. The modem 1768,which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus 1718via the serial port interface 1752. In a networked environment, programmodules depicted relative to the computer 1712, or portions thereof, maybe stored in the remote memory storage device 1760. It will beappreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and othermeans of establishing a communications link between the computers may beused.

FIG. 18 is a schematic block diagram of a sample computing environment1800 with which the present invention can interact. The system 1800includes one or more client(s) 1810. The client(s) 1810 can be hardwareand/or software (e.g., threads, processes, computing devices). Thesystem 1800 also includes one or more server(s) 1830. The server(s) 1830can also be hardware and/or software (e.g., threads, processes,computing devices). The servers 1830 can house threads to performtransformations by employing the present invention, for example. Onepossible communication between a client 1810 and a server 1830 may be inthe form of a data packet adapted to be transmitted between two or morecomputer processes. The system 1800 includes a communication framework1850 that can be employed to facilitate communications between theclient(s) 1810 and the server(s) 1830. The client(s) 1810 are operablyconnected to one or more client data store(s) 1860 that can be employedto store information local to the client(s) 1810. Similarly, theserver(s) 1830 are operably connected to one or more server datastore(s) 1840 that can be employed to store information local to theservers 1830.

What has been described above includes examples of the presentinvention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivablecombination of components or methodologies for purposes of describingthe present invention, but one of ordinary skill in the art mayrecognize that many further combinations and permutations of the presentinvention are possible. Accordingly, the present invention is intendedto embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fallwithin the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to theextent that the term “includes” is used in either the detaileddescription or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in amanner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpretedwhen employed as a transitional word in a claim.

1. A computer-implemented search system comprising: a storage componentthat stores attributes relating to one or more individuals; a searchengine that receives a user query, the search engine performing a socialnetwork-based search of the storage component to determine a referralpath from a source node of the query to a destination node, the referralpath comprising at least three nodes, wherein each node represents oneor more individuals; and a privacy component that selectively exposes tothe source node of the query portions of the referral path between anintermediate node and the destination node based upon one or moreexposure limitations set by one or more of the individuals at theintermediate node, wherein the intermediate node is located between thesource node and destination node on the referral path, the referral pathbetween an intermediate node and the destination node is not exposed tothe source node unless selectively exposed by the intermediate node. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the system is implemented across adistributed computing environment.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein thestorage component is propagated with individual profiles.
 4. The systemof claim 3, wherein an individual profile includes data directly inputby an individual represented by the individual profile.
 5. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the attributes are obtained via data scavenging.
 6. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein the attributes comprise corroborationinformation indentifying one or more individuals that will verify forthe source node the accuracy of information within another individual'sprofile.
 7. The system of claim 1, further comprising indices for theattributes that facilitate searching.
 8. The system of claim 1, whereinthe attributes are obtained from individual profiles.
 9. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the individual profiles respectively comprise buddylist information.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the attributes arerepresented as a directed graph comprising nodes and arcs, the arcsindicating relationships between the nodes.
 11. The system of claim 1,wherein a first node of the referral path is viewable by a requestinguser and remaining nodes of the referral path are hidden from therequesting user.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the storagecomponent stores buddy lists that comprise lists of users having directpersonal relationships with respective users.
 13. The system of claim 1,wherein the storage component utilizes encryption.
 14. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the user query comprises a query distance, the querydistance being a number of arcs from a user requesting the query throughwhich the query extends.
 15. A system for utilizing a social networkcomprising: a private storage component that maintains informationrelating to a social network, the social network represented via atleast one directed graph that functionally represents relationshipsbetween individuals and/or entities within the social network, the atleast one directed graph comprising a source vertex, a destinationvertex, and at least one intermediate vertex, wherein the at least oneintermediate vertex is between the source vertex and the destinationvertex along at least one path of the at least one directed graph fromthe source vertex to the destination vertex; and a search engine thatreceives a query for requested information, and searches the privatestorage component for the requested information, the search engineselectively exposing at least a portion of the at least one directedgraph downstream from the at least one intermediate vertex as part of aquery result based upon one or more exposure limitations set by one ormore of the individuals represented by the at least one intermediatevertex of the at least directed graph, the portion of the at least onedirected graph downstream from the at least one intermediate vertex ishidden from the source vertex unless selectively exposed by theintermediate vertex.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the informationcomprises buddy lists information, personal information andcorroboration information.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the buddylists information comprises a first set of users that have given accesspermission to be contacted for information by a respective user and asecond set of users that have been given access permission to contactthe respective user for information.
 18. The system of claim 16, whereinthe corroboration information indicates which users of the first set ofusers are searchable by the second set of users.
 19. The system of claim18, wherein the corroboration information further indicates which userswill perform corroboration of truthfulness another user's information.20. The system of claim 16, wherein the buddy lists informationcomprises a list of users, one or more users from the buddy list arerespectively assigned a familiarity value, wherein the familiarity valueindicates a degree of familiarity between whom created the buddy listand a user from the buddy list.
 21. The system of claim 20, wherein theprivate storage component represents the buddy lists information, thepersonal information and corroboration information as a directed graphwherein users are represented via vertices, and relationships betweenusers are represented via respective arcs connecting the vertices, thearcs having respective familiarity values assigned thereto.
 22. Thesystem of claim 20, wherein the familiarity value for respective arcsbetween a first user and a second user are a minimum of a firstfamiliarity value assigned by the first user and a second familiarityvalue assigned by the second user.
 23. The system of claim 15, whereinthe query result comprises a referral path.
 24. The system of claim 15,wherein the query result comprises an encoded subgraph of a referralpath.
 25. A search system comprising: means for storing attributesrelating to a plurality of at least one of individuals and entities, andintra-relationships between the respective individuals and/or entities;means for searching the attributes for requested information andselectively providing a referral path towards the requested information,the referral path comprising a subset containing at least three of theplurality of at least one of individuals and entities arranged inlinking manner corresponding to intra-relationships between theindividuals and/or entities; and means for selectively shieldingdownstream individuals and entities of the referral path based upon oneor more exposure limitations set by one or more of the at least one ofindividuals and entities located between the at least one of individualsor entities requesting the information and the at least one ofindividuals and entities having the requested information in thereferral path, the referral path between the at least one of individualsor entities requesting the information and the at least one ofindividuals and entities having the requested information is hidden fromthe at least one of individuals or entities requesting the informationunless selectively exposed by an intermediate node.